sales manager

IBM rarely, if ever publicly, talks about the future of IBM Z. When IBM's sales managers have a oneon-one client conversation (under NDA), they might inform the customer about the next processor, but the company rarely talks about the mid- to long-term future publicly. An obvious reason for this is not to disrupt sales, but at the same time, IBM believes that it is sometimes working on problems that the market might not know it has yet. IBM felt that it was doing a disservice to its current and future customers by not being more open, which is why Tarun Chopra, director, Product Management for IBM Systems, and Ross Mauri, general manager, IBM Z, agreed to talk to IDC about the future of IBM Z. In these conversations, IBM was not putting a date on any of the topics it was willing to discuss. But the company was willing to talk about where it is investing R&D dollars and skills.

Sales managers have faced the same challenges since long before CRM applications were invented. However, new tools and technologies are making their jobs easier. The future of sales performance management is integrated with CRM and social collaboration. It helps managers provide real-time coaching and motivation in context to drive better sales behaviors and, ultimately, better sales results.

If you’re a sales manager, you’re probably feeling stuck in the middle. On one hand, you have a huge employee engagement movement going on with HR departments focusing on developing leaders and recognizing achievements with substantial budgets. On the other side, marketing departments are using technology and creativity (and also large budgets) to connect with and educate customers about their products, solutions and brands.
The trend is to challenge every dollar spent on sales compensation to maximize ROI. HR departments are treating salespeople like all other employees. And customers are going online to avoid anyone with sales in their title.
Based on our research and applications we see in our customers’ leading sales initiatives, if you’re a sales manager, you are trying to maximize results out of your sales team by increasing your teams engagement to meet company goals. Download this white paper to see which eight trends you should consider as you strategize for the year.

From social selling to personalized sales messages, the tips on the following pages will help your sales reps prioritize the automation features that they’ll find the most useful. Understand the benefits for the different types of sales team members, including Business Development Reps (or cold-callers), Account Executives, and Sales Managers — then get ready to put what you’ve learned into practice!

Batesville deployed Oracle Sales Cloud to replace an aging custom application that didn’t support managers’ need for greater visibility into the company’s evolving product mix. Nucleus found the deployment enabled Batesville to increase the productivity of sales people and managers and enable managers to have more visibility into the pipeline to increase coaching opportunities.

Mobile devices are everywhere. 95% of UK millennials now use smartphones1; and it’s estimated that across the globe, nearly a billion more people now use mobile phones today than did five years ago.2 Mobile commerce will continue to grow as smartphones continue to be adopted. For example, forecasts for Europe’s EU 5 (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom) show mCommerce will account for 43.8% of eCommerce sales by 2020, compared to 32.9% in 2016.3 As fraud teams determine which orders to accept or reject, fraud managers are key to providing a seamless mobile checkout experience. But they also need to protect their business from fraud – and from the damage it can cause to bottom line, customer experience and brand.

As buyers have become increasingly more savvy and better-educated, B2B sales organizations have changed their strategies. But that can’t happen in a vacuum – sales training must change as well.
This brief provides specific ways to improve both the training content delivered to sales reps and the all-important methods for delivering that content. With this actionable information, managers and trainers can begin enacting real change that gets reps more conversation-ready than ever before.
Get your copy of this latest brief today. And ready your sales force for better opportunities and more wins.

Coaching is a top priority for sales organizations – but most managers tasked with coaching admit they’re not sure how to develop or maintain an effective coaching program.
Whether you’re starting a coaching initiative or making modifications to one, you won’t get far without the right buy-in, processes and resources.
This exclusive eBook offers 11 must-haves for effective sales coaching. Inside you’ll find:
• How to develop a comprehensive coaching plan
• The difference between coaching and training (and why you need both)
• Tips to make your current coaching program more effective
Ready to see better coaching results? Download your free copy today. Download your free copy and start enabling your sales managers to reach their maximum coaching potential.

With today's financial advisors and wealth managers facing such tough competition, the ability to thrive comes through maximizing efficiency and finding innovative ways to maintain and grow business.
This white paper highlights how technology is a great partner for meeting this need:
• Create more relevant interactions with customers by tracking your business in the cloud
• Connect to your customer information from any mobile device
• Increase sales to your customers with a deeper understanding of their needs
Download this white paper to learn more!

Are you a sales manager who’s new to inside sales? Or, are you already running an inside sales team but just want to polish up your knowledge? The Ultimate Guide to Inside Sales is the place to start. You’ll learn how to staff, train, organize and motivate your inside sales team for peak performance.
Welcome to the complete guide on inside sales. Everything you need to know to staff, train, organise, motivate and optimise your inside sales team for peak performance is in this guide. The guide has been specially crafted to walk you through building and growing a highly successful inside sales team and give you actionable insights and tips to start making improvements today.
In this guide you will learn:
• How to identify your key inside sales roles
• How to hire the best talent to accelerate your sales performance
• How to coach your inside sales teams
• How to craft your sales funnel for deeper insight into sales performance
• How to structure your team’s daily activity to improve ac

With the proliferation of the iPad and other tablets and mobile devices among sales and account managers, a new generation of enabling technologies and best practices has offered the opportunity to get more out of the out-of-office experience. This research brief examines the use of video tools by sales professionals within best-in-class companies, specially within a mobile environment.

"Would you like to demonstrate how you can better leverage eSignatures within your company? Hear from real-world deployment experiences from our customers across HR, Legal, Procurement, Sales, IT and Facilities.
Transformation Manager Paul Smith will discuss how DocuSign fits into the five-year transformation plan at LV=. With eSignatures, the insurer processes claims 5x faster while realising annualised business benefits of £27.5k.
Read this whitepaper to learn how to:
- Build and execute a business plan – so you choose the use cases that are right for your business
- Identify your highest priority use cases – so you can quickly deliver the greatest ROI and align with your business goals
- Measure your results – so you can prove the value to your business"

The best sales teams have strong leaders who exercise control and use their experience to set a strategic direction, to inspire and coach sales reps individually. But keeping the team on track and focused on winning it’s not always easy.
Read this article and find out what are the 5 leadership mistakes that keep sales managers from achieving their goals and how you can fix them.

Not too long ago, successful selling was all about power suits, firm handshakes, a persuasive attitude and gut instinct. Since then, the underlying map to sales success has changed dramatically. Today, the rock stars of any sales team are the reps who rely on data instead of intuition, and tools instead of tales.
Read this article to learn how data and analytics enable sales reps and managers to improve sales productivity and more:
• Gain a better understanding of your leads and prospects and personalize your approach.
• Maximize the performance of new members of the sales team.
• Increase compensation effectiveness.
• Optimize territories.

This white paper provides information on how the marriage of social collaboration, CRM, and performance management presents new opportunities for great sales managers to scale their skills more effectively.

If you want to improve your sales team's results, you need to start by asking the right questions. Download this new best-practices eBook to learn about the 12 key questions for data-driven Sales Managers. This informative guide will help you:
- Determine Key Metrics For Sales Management
- Improve Sales Team Productivity
- Closed-Won More Deals
Download a free copy of "12 Must-Ask Questions for Data-Driven Sales Managers" today.

How is it possible that in the same environment and under the same conditions, some reps achieve outstanding results while others struggle just to make their quota? In 5 Steps to Better Sales Performance we reveal the proven methods the best sales managers rely on to close the sales performance gap between average performers and All-Stars.
Download now.

Learn how the future of sales performance management is integrated with CRM and social collaboration and how this will help managers provide real-time coaching and motivation in context to drive better sales behaviors and, ultimately, better sales results.
Download now.